Galileo Spacecraft

The weather on Jupiter is bad, and it only gets worse the deeper you sink beneath those colorful, swirling cloud tops astronomers have studied for so long. Scientists told the 1996 Spring Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Baltimore this week that the Galileo spacecraft's atmospheric probe found winds approaching 500 mph about 100 miles under the visible cloud tops. That's a pitch-dark place beneath a thick overcast of ammonia clouds where the sun's energy doesn't penetrate, they said.

After 15 years exploring space, Galileo hurtles toward its planned destruction on Jupiter. By John Noble Wilford The New York Times Today several hundred engineers and scientists will gather at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to await the end of the Galileo spacecraft in a suicide plunge into Jupiter's dense atmosphere. They are the kind of professionals who try to resist anthropomorphizing their machines, even one such as Galileo, which has been a longtime companion in their lives and careers.

While engineers investigated the condition of an apparently failed tape recorder on the Galileo spacecraft, the chief scientist predicted on Friday that it would still be possible to achieve at least half of the mission's scientific objectives in exploring Jupiter without the machine - but there would be fewer pictures. "The impact of a possible loss of the tape recorder is not as bad as people assumed when we first heard about the problem," said Torrence Johnson, the project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Scientists are reporting that a third moon of Jupiter, Ganymede, may also have an ocean sloshing beneath its frozen exterior. NASA's Galileo spacecraft has detected undulations in Ganymede's magnetic field. Planetary scientists had previously found indications of under-ice oceans on Europa and Callisto, two other moons of Jupiter. Water is a necessary requirement for the development of life. "It looks pretty persuasive to us," said Dr. Margaret Kivelson, a professor of space physics at the University of California at Los Angeles, who led the research.

Scientists are reporting that a third moon of Jupiter, Ganymede, may also have an ocean sloshing beneath its frozen exterior. NASA's Galileo spacecraft has detected undulations in Ganymede's magnetic field. Planetary scientists had previously found indications of under-ice oceans on Europa and Callisto, two other moons of Jupiter. Water is a necessary requirement for the development of life. "It looks pretty persuasive to us," said Dr. Margaret Kivelson, a professor of space physics at the University of California at Los Angeles, who led the research.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Workers began the time-consuming task of switching a key computer aboard the shuttle Atlantis on Wednesday, a process that is expected to delay the launch until at least next Tuesday. The computer, called a controller, monitors one of the shuttle`s three main engines during liftoff and it had given faulty readings during a checkout on Monday night. Astronaut Robert Crippen said on Wednesday that launch officials feared that the computer might shut down the engine during liftoff, "placing the vehicle in jeopardy."

After 15 years exploring space, Galileo hurtles toward its planned destruction on Jupiter. By John Noble Wilford The New York Times Today several hundred engineers and scientists will gather at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to await the end of the Galileo spacecraft in a suicide plunge into Jupiter's dense atmosphere. They are the kind of professionals who try to resist anthropomorphizing their machines, even one such as Galileo, which has been a longtime companion in their lives and careers.

Imagine Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl and the Exxon tanker spill happening simultaneously in Florida. Former NASA scientist Horst Poehler says he knows of a potentially deadlier nightmare: the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on Oct. 12. If Atlantis explodes during liftoff and a shower of plutonium escapes from the Galileo spacecraft on board, Poehler said the cancer-inducing toxin could reach the lungs of tens of thousands of Space Coast residents in...

After repeated failures to jolt free the Galileo spacecraft`s main antenna, engineers have begun preparations to salvage the craft`s mission to Jupiter by making the most of a weaker, slower-transmitting small antenna. A disappointed Dr. William J. O`Neil, project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said on Wednesday: "There is really nothing left for us to try." Using the small antenna, Galileo will return 2,000 to 4,000 pictures instead of the originally planned 50,000.

Twenty-five years after the last Apollo astronaut left the moon, a small unmanned spacecraft is ready to embark on a return trip, the first mission since then designed expressly for lunar exploration. One of its priorities is to answer the question, Is there water on the moon? The 660-pound cylindrical spacecraft, Lunar Prospector, is scheduled for launch at 8:31 p.m. Monday at Cape Canaveral. After a journey of four and a half days, the craft should swing into a lunar orbit on Saturday and begin 18 months of gathering data on the moon's structure, composition and potentially useful resources for future interplanetary exploration.

The weather on Jupiter is bad, and it only gets worse the deeper you sink beneath those colorful, swirling cloud tops astronomers have studied for so long. Scientists told the 1996 Spring Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Baltimore this week that the Galileo spacecraft's atmospheric probe found winds approaching 500 mph about 100 miles under the visible cloud tops. That's a pitch-dark place beneath a thick overcast of ammonia clouds where the sun's energy doesn't penetrate, they said.

While engineers investigated the condition of an apparently failed tape recorder on the Galileo spacecraft, the chief scientist predicted on Friday that it would still be possible to achieve at least half of the mission's scientific objectives in exploring Jupiter without the machine - but there would be fewer pictures. "The impact of a possible loss of the tape recorder is not as bad as people assumed when we first heard about the problem," said Torrence Johnson, the project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Workers began the time-consuming task of switching a key computer aboard the shuttle Atlantis on Wednesday, a process that is expected to delay the launch until at least next Tuesday. The computer, called a controller, monitors one of the shuttle`s three main engines during liftoff and it had given faulty readings during a checkout on Monday night. Astronaut Robert Crippen said on Wednesday that launch officials feared that the computer might shut down the engine during liftoff, "placing the vehicle in jeopardy."

Imagine Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl and the Exxon tanker spill happening simultaneously in Florida. Former NASA scientist Horst Poehler says he knows of a potentially deadlier nightmare: the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on Oct. 12. If Atlantis explodes during liftoff and a shower of plutonium escapes from the Galileo spacecraft on board, Poehler said the cancer-inducing toxin could reach the lungs of tens of thousands of Space Coast residents in...

The way Morris Soldinger sees it, the government has better things to do than to be sending nuclear-powered spaceships to Jupiter. "I`m willing to wait 100 years from now to learn about Jupiter," the Pompano Beach resident said. "We have so many problems right here, let`s spend the millions to help solve the problems. Let`s feed the hungry." Soldinger, 77, was one of 24 people who gathered to hear anti-nuclear activist Bethany Bechtel speak at the Unitarian Church of Fort Lauderdale in Oakland Park on Thursday night.

Scientists on Tuesday got their closest look ever at Jupiter's frozen moon Europa, a crackled and blistered body that could have an ocean harboring life. The look was courtesy of the Galileo spacecraft, which swooped 124 miles above Europa's surface and recently detected signs of magnesium salts that point to a possible briny ocean beneath an icy crust. "Europa really is the gem of the solar system," said Ronald Greeley, an Arizona State University geologist. Officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory also showed images from the last Europa pass on Nov. 6, with new signs that slushy material is pushing upward, rupturing the surface and freezing.